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Jaime J. Martinez
Mr. Doyle
ENGL-1301-153
December 01, 2020
Semester Reflection
In my reflection, I will inform my readers about the main information that I have
gathered from taking this ENGL-1301-153 course. In class, my group discussed learning how to:
revise and reflect, give feedback, approach a different audience, and how we have learned the
different types of languages. I mentioned the different types of languages because I felt as if
that’s where I had a lot of to think and say of in the terms of “identities” that a language can
hold.
I related to some of ted talks that were provided throughout the lessons, but the one that stuck out
most to me was “My identity is a superpower – not an obstacle | America Ferrera”. It struck me
the most, because people in the Rio Grande Valley see me as any other Hispanic, but they judge
me by not “knowing how speak Spanish when I am Mexican.” I like to say this by speaking for a
lot of people in the Rio Grande valley, that not everyone is taught the same thing by their
parents. My parents are both fluent in Spanish, but they chose to speak English with my family,
so that we will not be judged on the way that we speak. I know families that would speak only
Spanish in their home and speak English/Spanish in public. So, I took my identity and saw the
beauty in what I have.
During series two, we touched up on identities and how to improve our literacy practices. I
believe that as you age, “the more your identity and literacy practices grow.” I spoke about a
challenge I faced with my reading teacher at eight years old. My reading teacher was really harsh
on grading my assignments and I always got the feedback “needs to improve reading skills.” I
never understood why this first-grade teacher of mine was quick to grade my work harshly. As a
child, I always wondered “how I can improve?” As an adult, I see that there will always be room
to grow in whatever situation I am put to. I can also see that my old teacher was pretty mean, but
it was reasonable to have high expectations of students. Unlike most teachers, he failed to let me
know how to improve.
During series three, I was introduced to inquiry. We got to go throughout the whole process of
creating an essay. First, we had to brainstorm and have an idea of what our topic is going to be
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about. Second, we had to find our sources and revise our proposal. Then, we had to give
ourselves feedback on our investigative essay and receive feedback from our peers. With the
feedback given, it was time to revise our essay, and also fix any problems along your essay.
Finally, our essay was now complete and ready to send for grading. This series was to build up
our process of writing an essay. I had trouble with this series by gathering unnecessary
information from my sources that “sounded good” but weren’t useful for my essay. I took fairly
long on my investigative essay by having a lot to edit. The work given to us helped me by being
able to develop an essay and learn to go back and revise it. This series taught me how much of a
big deal revision is, and how much it is a necessity while writing an essay.
During series four, we did our remix artifact. In the first step, we had to find our ideas/message
that we would share from our research. Second, we had to find out our audience and how we
would get their interest. Then, we had to figure out our purpose in sharing our idea(s) to the
audience. Finally, we had to find a form to support our purposes and really grab our audience’s
attention. In the first step, I struggled to find out what I was going to write about. I asked for
some ideas from Mr. Doyle and asked what was valid to use. He then gave me some ideas on
what I can have my topic on. After figuring out my topic, I instantly knew who I wanted to
target. When we finish our draft, we needed to get feedback from our peers. Which was fairly
difficult since not all of my classmates would give feedback, so I waited until we had class and I
asked Mr. Doyle for feedback on my assignment. I explained that my artifact would be found on
the app “TikTok” and he agreed on how it would be a good way to approach my audience. I had
a lot of problems with the editing portion of the assignment. Unfortunately, I don’t know how to
properly function the app to how I would like to. So, I couldn’t fix the timing on the video,
because of how many pictures I had included and how long the speed was. That part of the series
definitely took more time than what it needed, and it required a lot of patience out of my
girlfriend and me.
One thing I can take away from ENGL-1301-153, it would be that “there is always room for
improvement.” Which is something that Mr. Doyle mentioned to me after the Investigative
essay. I know he meant that for my essay, but I can take that quote with me whenever I feel
content with something that needs more.